


And If I'm Gone Tomorrow

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:02:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24098524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: "Maybe tonight is the only night I’ll ever have with you. But that doesn’t make it mean anything less, Jack.”
Relationships: David Jacobs & Jack Kelly, Jack Kelly/Katherine Plumber
Comments: 13
Kudos: 27





	And If I'm Gone Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> Are we surpriiiiiiiiiiiiiised?
> 
> hey yeah I'm back again with another fic about the time between the rally and oafa and I'm not sorry about it. this one's actually mostly about the scene present in the show though! Something to Believe In is a really weird song, when you think about it, and this is the result of me thinking about it maybe a little too much, ft as always Jack having a moment over having to face Davey again, bc it wouldn't be me without it.
> 
> Basically this is the scene around STBI with a few creative liberties and a lot more cursing, and a little bit more scene at the end.

All Jack wants is to be alone.

There’s this sticky, heavy feeling in his throat and he can’t get rid of it and he can’t fucking _breathe_. It’s guilt, he knows it’s guilt, because it doesn’t matter how good his intentions were when he just betrayed everybody he cares about. He doesn’t want to think about what Crutchie would say to him if he knew what Jack’s done. He doesn’t want to think about Race’s shocked voice or Les flinching away from him or the look on Davey’s face but he can’t fucking _stop_ thinking about it.

This feels everything and nothing like when he made a similarly frantic climb up this fire escape a few days ago. He can feel the same panic and fear and hurt bubbling through him, coursing through his veins like his blood is on fire, but now it’s tangled with the heavy weight of guilt, guilt, guilt –

He barely remembers the run from the theatre, all he knows is the sting of corroding metal under his hands as he climbs the last few rungs of the ladder.

“That was some speech you gave.”

Jack has barely registered Katherine’s presence before she starts speaking. Guilt gives way to betrayal, to hurt. She’s got a few of his drawings in her hands.

“How the hell’d you get here?” Jack spits at her.

“Specs told me,” Katherine replies.

“Oh, yeah?” says Jack. He snatches as much of the art as he can back from her, rolling it back up to put in its hiding place with shaking hands. “He tell you you could go through my shit, too?”

“They were just sticking out of there, I didn’t know what they were,” Katherine says. She’s looking down at the one sketch he hadn’t been able to get his hands on. “These drawings – they’re of the Refuge, aren’t they?”

Jack grunts, focusing on tucking his art away.

“Is this really what it’s like in there?” Katherine presses. “Three boys to a bed, rats everywhere and –“

“What, s’a little different to how you were raised?” Jack cuts in. He tugs the sketch out of her hands, trying not to look at it as he puts it away as well.

“Snyder told my father you were arrested stealing food and clothing – it was for them, wasn’t it?” Katherine asks. She’s in Jack’s personal space, she’s too close, he can’t breathe – “Jack, I don’t understand! If you were willing to go to jail for those boys before, why would you turn on them now?”

“Oh, we’re gonna talk about _turnin’ on folks_?” Jack growls, finally finding his voice. “ _You’re_ gonna talk about turnin’ on folks?”

“I never turned on you or anyone else!” Katherine replies. She sounds slightly desperate.

“You double crossed us to your fucking father!” Jack sounds _very_ desperate. “Your father!”

“My _father_ has people all over this city,” says Katherine, “he doesn’t need me spying for him.” She takes a sharp breath. “And I never lied. I just – I didn’t tell you everything.”

Jack has to resist the urge to just scream. “Oh, if you were a boy you’d be trying to talk with a _fist_ in your mouth!”

“I told you I work for the Sun, and I do!” Katherine shouts, matching his intensity breath for breath. “I told you my professional name is Plumber, and it is! You never _fucking asked_ for my real one!”

The profanity surprises Jack just a little, but he barrels on. “I didn’t think I would’a had to, didn’t know I was dealin’ with a goddamn backstabber!”

“Oh, if I was a boy you’d be lookin’ at me through one _swollen eye!”_ Katherine snaps, her hand balling into a fist.

“Don’t let that stop you!” Jack says, pushing into Katherine’s space and opening his stance to give her a wider target. “Give me your best shot!”

Katherine grabs him, her fingers digging into the back of his neck, and drags him into a bruising kiss. Not what he was expecting at all, but not entirely unpleasant. He gives into it, pushing back toward her with as much force as he gets. And then she’s pulling away, taking a sharp step back and pulling her hands to her chest like she’s been burned. He follows for half a step, but when she turns her head he doesn’t try again.

“I – I need to know you didn’t cave for the money,” Katherine says, avoiding his gaze.

All the fight drains out of Jack in an instant, and he slumps against the railing of the fire escape. “No I – I spoke the truth. You win a fight when you got the other guy down eatin’ pavement, an’ – an’ you heard your father. No matter how many days we strike he ain’t ever gonna give in.” He sighs, looking down at his hands. “I don’t know what else we can do.”

“Ah, but I do,” says Katherine. Jack’s head snaps up to look at her, so fast it hurts his neck a little.

Katherine spins out her plan – this is bigger than the newsies, she tells him, because _he_ made it bigger than the newsies. If they can get the city’s working kids on their side, all of them, they could bring New York to a screeching halt.

Together, they take her plan from vague to executable, because Jack happens to know the one printing press in the world nobody would ever believe they’d dare use. He ignores the weight that settles back in his chest when she says Davey’s name, and ignores the fact that to make this paper happen he’ll need Davey and the boys on his side and _that_ is more unattainable than a printing press.

She’s starting to make for the ladder when Jack finds his voice –

“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” he says, and Katherine falls still. “What’s this about, for you? I don’t mean the – the children’s crusade, or whatever. What’s _this about_?” He waves between their bodies with a shaky, uncontrolled hand. That kiss – “Am I kiddin’ myself or is there something –“

Katherine laughs, which doesn’t actually make Jack feel any better. “Of course there is, Jack.”

“Well don’t just say it like it happens every day!” Jack snaps. He rolls his shoulders, trying to dissipate some of the tension creeping back in.

“Jack –“

“No, I’m not an idiot!” says Jack. He sounds ragged, tired. “I know girls like you don’t end up with guys like me, and I don’t wan’cha promisin’ anything you’re just gonna take back later.” He takes a few breaths before speaking again, but Katherine just waits. “Lookin’ at you, tonight, I just –“ He sighs. “I’m afraid tomorrow’s gonna come and everything’s gonna change. I wish I could just stop time, and just stand here lookin’ at you forever.”

“You snuck up on me, Jack Kelly,” Katherine says carefully, shaking her head. “I never even saw it coming.”

“For sure?”

“For sure,” Katherine echoes, mimicking his accent. She sweeps a hand through her hair. “Before I met you, I had these – these rigid ideas of what love was like, should be like. And you blew in and changed everything.” She takes a tentative step toward Jack, and he doesn’t shy away. “The world throws all kinds of shit at you and you just have to stick it out, and then every once in a while you get something worth believing in to push you through it.” She meets Jack’s eye. “You’re my something, Jack.”

“But –“

“Maybe this won’t last.” Katherine’s voice wavers just a little bit. “Maybe, maybe tonight is the only night I’ll ever have with you. But that doesn’t make it mean anything less, Jack.” She reaches for his hand, lacing their fingers together. “You want to leave New York when all this is done; don’t think I don’t know what that would mean for me. But I’m not giving up this moment for anything.”

Jack takes a deep, slow breath. “I don’t think I was ever meant to meet you, Katherine.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. But I met’cha anyway, god knows _why,”_ says Jack. “And it could’a been nothin’, just two strangers passin’ through each other’s lives like happens every other day. But we _kept_ findin’ each other, and you – you gave me something, too.” He squeezes her hand. “If I’m gone tomorrow, if I leave – will this have been worth it for you? Really?”

“This night doesn’t stop being real just because we walk away from each other,” Katherine says. “ _We_ don’t stop being real just because we walk away from each other.”

Jack kisses her then, and she doesn’t pull away. This kiss is much sweeter and slower than the last one. Still, he pulls away with a groan and a bad taste in his mouth.

“Oh, Kath, if things were different –“

“What, if you weren’t going to Santa Fe?”

Jack frowns. “Yeah, and if you weren’t an _heiress_.” He sighs, tangling his fingers in his hair for a moment. “If your father wasn’t after my head –“

“You aren’t really scared of my father,” Katherine says.

“No,” says Jack. He bites his lip, trying to decide how to articulate the feelings tangling up with the guilt and nerves in his chest. “Not really. But I’m pretty scared of you.”

Katherine smiles, shaking her head. “Don’t be. If you’re gone tomorrow –“

“What we’ve got is still real,” Jack finishes.

“And that’s enough,” Katherine says.

“That’s enough,” agrees Jack. He kisses her again. “Alright. Time to face the world. You sure you want to do it with me?”

“Fo’sure.”

The light, buzzing feeling of reciprocated attraction is clashing with the tightening anxiety that’s washing back over him as Jack and Katherine climb down from the rooftop. He feels a bit like he’s going to throw up.

“Jack?” Katherine asks, frowning at him. “Are you okay?”

“I, uh,” says Jack, swallowing hard. “Kathy, we can’t do this on our own.”

“No, well, I have some friends that can help with the actual printing, but you’ll need to get the boys to help with distribution,” Katherine says. “You’ll have to –“ she falls short, eyes searching his face. “We’ll need Davey, Jack.”

Jack’s heart falls through his stomach like a lead weight at Davey’s name. “I know.”

“If you tell him what you told me –“

“Did you see him, Kath?” Jack asks. “Did you see him at the rally? This ain’t _like_ you – you got all kinds’a other reasons to wanna trust me, love. Davey –“ he stops, drawing in a ragged breath. “This whole thing? You ain’t in it like me an’ Davey. S’personal for us. He ain’t gonna wanna see me.”

Katherine cups Jack’s cheek with her hand. “Davey cares about you, Jack. And he’s known you for years, there’s no way he won’t –“

“No he hasn’t,” Jack replies.

“Hasn’t what?”

“Known me for years. I met him the same day I met you.”

Katherine blinks at him, stunned. “You’re kidding me.”

“I’m tellin’ the truth,” says Jack, shrugging.

“All the more, then,” says Katherine. She shakes her head. “You’re incredible, honestly. You had him on your side the day after he met you, and having seen the two of you together I’d never have known you were strangers a few days ago.” She pats Jack’s cheek and drops her hand. “If you talk to him, you’ll have him. I don’t think David Jacobs can tell you no.”

“Here’s hoping, I guess,” says Jack. “’Cause you’re right, we can’t do this without Davey on our side. Race, too, pro’lly. The guys won’t trust me after the shit I pulled, an’I don’t blame’em.”

“Then go get him on our side,” Katherine says. She pushes up on her toes to give Jack one last kiss before they separate. “If anyone can do this, you can.”

“Catch you at the World in an hour, darlin’.”

“See you then.”


End file.
